<International Circulation>:  What should the clinician know about the emerging navigation and mapping technologies?

   《国际循环》：对于新兴的导航和定位技术，临床医师应该了解哪些方面？
    Dr Natale:The navigation technology and 3D mapping system has been developed in the last ten or fifteen years so that now it has become an important part of any complex procedure. It is something we take for granted but it is really something that most operators， unless they have an incredible amount of experience， are not going to be able to live without because the anatomy is different in every patient so to be able to have that information either in real time with echocardiography or in a pre-acquired facility by 3D MRI which is imported into the mapping system. It is very important for our chances of being successful. In ventricular tachycardia ablation now， it is becoming more popular to acquire an MRI to show the scar distribution because the scar is our target during this procedure and certainly information on where the scar is located and if it shows to be more epicardially than endocardially then it is very important in making the procedure more efficient. The image that can be acquired before the procedure to show us the scar location can be either a PET scan or an MRI scan which now are being implemented into the mapping system so the procedure that we need to do to treat the patient’s problem becomes more efficient. So the procedure we need to follow for this complex ablation is: first， produce the 3D scan and this is where the mapping system becomes invaluable; then obviously to reach the spot relevant for a successful ablation and that is another component of the procedure where technology can help with the navigation or to assess the contact pressure which offers invaluable information which determ